Wednesday, August 20, 2014

At this very moment, our neighborhood is being destroyed by Tennessee Valley Authority. There is a transmission line easement through our backyards and has been since 1942. All of us who live here were aware of the easement when we bought our homes. Every 5 years or so, TVA would send reps out to check the vegetation growing near the lines and they would ask us to trim our trees.
We have oak trees that are over 100 years old in our backyard, as do many of our neighbors. We have always complied with their requests and have enjoyed the shade and privacy our trees and shrubs have provided us. That has changed. In June, we were informed that TVA is clear cutting along their easement. That means that no vegetation that has the potential to grow over 6 feet tall will be allowed under the transmission lines. Nothing that can grow over 15 feet tall will be allowed along the remainder of the 75 foot easement. The reality is that they will cut down anything they want to. We are losing 4 massive oak trees that are between 60 and 70 feet away from the lines, dogwood trees, crape myrtles and a dwarf butterfly bush. Our neighbors are losing or have already lost sycamores, oaks, maples, bradford pears many shrubs. One neighbor's wood fence was cut and shoddily repaired after his trees were cut down. They don't care and don't think they owe us anything.
These crews come in at 6:15 AM and start getting their chainsaws ready to destroy. They have cut down trees that were previously tagged by their "Specialists", but they have cut down a dwarf butterfly bush in our backyard that wasn't tagged. We have been lied to and disrespected by these "Specialists". Whenever we ask questions, they give us scripted replies, that have nothing to do with the questions asked. We have talked to 4 groups of 2 reps at different times, and they recited their scripts each time. We heard them so many times, that we were able to recite along with them.
TVA has a presence in 7 southern states. They claim our electric rates are lower, but that remains to be seen. TVA is not environmentally friendly. TVA still operates coal fired plants. They are not replacing "unacceptable" vegetation with "acceptable" vegetation, they are just destroying millions of trees and causing erosion and air pollution. They have several nuclear power plants that were scrapped or deemed unsafe and abandoned. Now, they are wasting millions on this destructive clear-cutting along their transmission lines. TVA has a deficit in excess of $25 BILLION dollars, yet Washington keeps pumping more into this monster.
We should all be protesting to our Congressmen and Senators to stop this waste of our tax dollars. Even though TVA operates only in the south, everyone in the USA is paying for TVA's waste. President Obama wanted to shut TVA down and privatize it. He should!
TVA SUCKS!